The 'real' season starts on Saturday. As confident as I was that the Warriors would win last year (d'oh ), I think I like their chances even more this year. They have a much easier path to WCF, while the Spurs have an absolute gauntlet- assuming they can even get past Memphis.

For the East, I think the Cavs did themselves a huge favor by getting the 2 seed. Matchups with the Bulls and Wizards would be a lot tougher than than Pacers or Raptors. As good as Boston is, I still think the Cavs will coast to another ECF and beat them.

Worthless predictions:

WESTDubs over Blazers in 4Clippers over Jazz in 6Spurs over Griz in 6 (although I could also see Memphis upsetting them)Rockets over Thunder in 5

Dubs over Clippers in 5Rockets over Spurs in 7

Dubs over Rockets in 6

EAST

Celtics over Bulls in 5Wizards over Hawks in 6Cavs over Pacers in 5Raptors over Bucks in 5

Seriously TWW? I know it was Easter weekend, but some games were pretty good.

The Clippers meltdown at the end was very nice and the Boston game was a good one too. The Warriors game was a little too close for comfort up until the 4th quarter, but I don't see how Portland can win more than a game or two when only their backcourt can score. OKC/Houston is going to be over pretty quickly and the Spurs/Griz series isn't going to be as close as I thought.

The Chicago/Boston game was ugly. Thomas was basically the only consistent playmaker on Boston and late game was got blocked like three trips in a row. Then Smart and Crowder were bricking jumpers all day....it's just not an attractive game.

Chicago's offense is perhaps the ugliest of all the teams in the playoffs and had they not killed the celtics on the boards, they lose yesterday.

Of all the great predictions I've made here I think my best in ever were kawhi Leonard and james harden. They are easily 2 of the top 5 players in the league now along with Curry, durant, and lebron

I put my money on washington at 10:1 to win the East.

Thoroughly enjoying the waxing harden is putting on that Westbrook fraud.

Sorry I forgot to post prior to the first few games of rd 1 but here is what I would have said

Boston in 6Cleveland in 5Toronto in 6Washington in 5

Washington in 6Cleveland in 7

Washington in 7

Golden State in 4San Antonio in 4Houston in 5Utah in 7

Golden State in 5Houston in 6

Golden State in 4

Golden State in 4

Obviously that Utah in 7 id probably switch to clippers In 7 now that Gobert is hurt... I think the cells will come back but Toronto is clearly in big danger of losing to Milwaukee. Im just sticking with my pre playoff beliefs.

I'd give golden state over Cleveland in 5 maybe. But they are way to overpowering for anyone else

he kinda is though. Triple doubles aren't as big of a deal as they used to be (look how many other players got this season compared to several decades ago), and he willingly gave up a ton of open looks just to pad his assist stats. He's a great player, but he'll never be like LeBron who can basically carry an entire team on his back to coast to the Finals. [/hottake]

"and he willingly gave up a ton of open looks just to pad his assist stats."

He has the worst 3pt shooting teammates in the league (not that he's that great). And Steven Adams has probably bumbled away around 100 easy baskets. If he had average shooting teammates, he would still get those assist numbers without "giving up a ton of open looks".

I get the "stat padders" arguments. I don't agree with them...but I get them. But all you had to do was watch the final stretch of the regular season and see how Westbrook single handedly won them the Magic, Mavericks, and Nuggets game. He did it three times in like 10 games and I don't think any other player put up that type of performance once this year. He had the most "clutch" points in the league (was close to beating the all-time mark).

"Yep. Too bad his team sucks. I still think KD is a much better player overall though. He's been carrying the Ws this season with awesome offensive and defensive play night after night. He won't even be considered for the MVP, which I think is a shame, because he's surrounded by lottery picks, All-Stars, and the reigning back to back MVP. Regardless, any player averaging a triple double per game should probably win the award, which is why it's Westrbook's year."

I just think it's funny how riled up everyone gets whenever I say something that isn't Westbrook devotion/adoration. I also think it's funny that people would rather get into a pissing contest about the MVP award than to actually discuss what's going on this playoffs.

Looks like the one-man shows don't work very well in the playoffs--especially when your one-man show is a 5'7 defensive liability, but maybe also when your one-man show is a triple-double machine. Who knew?

PER is still measured against the rest of the league. Low shooting percentages still bring down your PER...it's just that Westbrook's numbers are so ridiculous everywhere else that it doesn't bring them down low enough...at least compared to the rest of the league...which is what we're doing here.

"Hollinger argues that each two point field goal made is worth about 1.65 points. A three point field goal made is worth 2.65 points. A missed field goal, though, costs a team 0.72 points. Given these values, with a bit of math we can show that a player will break even on his two point field goal attempts if he hits on 30.4% of these shots. On three pointers the break-even point is 21.4%. If a player exceeds these thresholds, and virtually every NBA player does so with respect to two-point shots, the more he shoots the higher his value in PERs. So a player can be an inefficient scorer and simply inflate his value by taking a large number of shots.""

Westbrook's usage rate this season also set the record, 42.5% vs 2006 Kobe's previous 38.7% usage rate. Everyone else is averaging 90% of Westbrooks stats with much less usage. They just don't use up as many of their team's possessions.

"Berri leads off with a huge misunderstanding of PER—that the credits and debits it gives for making and missing shots equate to a “break-even” shooting mark of 30.4% on 2-point shots. He made this assumption because he forgot that PER is calibrated against the rest of the league at the end of the formula."

Right, PER is a comparative statistic that is adjusted by league averages. And still, players who don't take a lot of shots are punished.

There is also a very strong correlation between usage rate and PER, if you give any of the other MVP contenders 90% of Westbrook's usage rate, they would easily surpass him in every metric.

Does anyone have Kobe Bryant's PER for his last game? Just curious. I'd imagine we can all agree that was awful efficiency yet I would bet PER would rate that higher than it should be, given its favorability towards high volume shooting.

Boston being down 0-2 and having to go on the road is not good. Sucks that Thomas' sister got killed in that car wreck, because I don't see them coming back, given the way they're playing. Face may very well be right about the Wizards challenging Cleveland for a Finals spot.

And as far as this asinine RW debate, the one thing I'll say is that it's pretty dumb to give him so much credit for being a triple double machine, while crying about his supporting cast being so dreadful and arguing that he's done everything single handedly. No, he doesn't have much talent around him, but it's not like you can get a triple double without the help from your teammates- they do have to actually score points when you pass them the ball and pass to you so that you can score from time to time. My biggest knock on him is that he doesn't really make the team much better and he hasn't helped to elevate his teammates all that much either. Again, he's no LeBron, so his chase for all these triple doubles when it didn't really matter seems more about his own ego than actually helping his team contend for a title.

You can't say he's this phenomenal player that does everything by himself and blame his supporting for being hot garbage, when that shitty supporting cast has helped him chase his triple doubles all season long.

I already said he should win the MVP award, what more do you want from me? The case could easily be made for Harden too, but if it came down to it, I doubt OKC's record would be all that different, while Houston might actually be a bit better if they traded places.

This MVP bitchfest isn't like last season where it was a unanimous decision. This is more about personal preferences, while the MVP has often been about the best player on the best team, or just a popularity contest since there's no real stand out performances. It's a big deal to get so many triple doubles, but how he got them warrants some criticism.

I can only imagine how much praise you'd be heaping on KD or Curry if they averaged a triple double. And if Harden wasn't chasing his own triple doubles, or we didn't have talking heads giving contradictory hot takes just because, it would be a unanimous MVP this year as well.

The triple double doesn't matter. Asides from how base-10 and double digits are arbitrary already... rebounds, especially defensive, especially in the small ball era, especially among point guards, don't matter.

Westbrook is having a great season, but its because of his scoring and assists. Him chasing defensive boards over teammates doesn't give him an edge over more efficient players with better records, no matter how big your boners get over triple double hype.

He hates on him because Curry is a little bitch and Westbrook is a man-child.

He's in constant defense mode. Curry is a finesse player, a media darling, and a rich, daddy's boy. Westbrook is brute strength, full speed, hated-on more than anyone besides Lebron, and a poor kid from Cali. And he put together one of the greatest seasons ever...and Golden State fanboys are hating on him like crazy.

fair enough, although I was mainly just being hyperbolic to troll jbrick because he's so in love with him. I still don't know what more you people want from me. 51 points is quite the effort, but he sure did deliver a classic RW choke job in the 4th though going 4-18.

I'd forgotten how salty TWW NBA fans are in general. I'm sorry the Hornets sucked this year and all you REAL fans only follow players and not teams. It's pretty fun to be a Ws fan right now since I have four All stars on my team to root for